Laser tape measure?

[J. Clarke]

should do what you need. The tape will extend out 13 feet without collapsing if you're careful with how you hold it. 8 feet is a piece of cake.

[Leon]

About 8 years ago I did about 8 complete homes. I did the measuring, 10 or

12 pieces at a time, and cutting, my buddy took the cut pieces and nailed them in with seldom the need to redo. You run into problems with fit when the wall unintentionally bows in or out. This makes the measurement a tad short.

[RLM]

I have a "Houseworks Digitape" ultra sound measuring tool that I'm happy with but could only find references to the patent. The Zircon 58429 DMS50

50 Ultrasonic Measure at this site looks much the same.

[Doug Miller]

No, never tried that, because I realize there's no need to.

Method 1: Set ladder near center of wall. Extend tape to one corner. Make a pencil mark at four feet. Extend tape to the other corner, and measure to the mark. Add 48", and that's the dimension.

Method 2: Obtain two straight wooden slats, each slightly more than half the length of the wall. Set ladder near center of wall. Extend slats until one end of each slat touches a corner. Mark the point of overlap on one slat.

Method 3: Get a second ladder and a second person to hold the tape.

[J. Clarke]

't count on it being the same. Reading the patent on which your Digitape and the Stanley Intellimeasure (at least one model--before I paid money for it I'd want to make sure that the one I was getting did list that patent somewhere) and the reviews of the older model Intellimeasure on Amazon, it appears that for what is was designed to do it's surprisingly decent. Enough so that if I wanted such a device I'd risk the 20 bucks.

Note that Stanley is also selling a "TLM-100 Trulaser"

which is a poor man's Disto--it was designed in partnership with Leica and uses the same technology, with some corners cut to bring the price below 100 bucks at the cost of shorter range, poor direct sunlight performance, and reduced accuracy (1/4 inch vs 1/16 inch).